Chapter 257: The Prime Minister Starts Today

Chapter 256 – Prime Minister Starts Today

In the pantry on the second floor of Rubin’s Perfume Shop, Arthur, Disraeli and Brummel chatted around the new king’s household.

Ever since the birth of such a thing as a king on this island, the various news of the royal family had been the most talked about by the people of Britannia.

Whether it was the high and mighty nobles of the Upper House or the poor people of London struggling to make ends meet, as long as they talked about the royal family, the group could always pull out some secret rumor they had heard from who knows where.

But unlike most roadside sources, those obtained from Mr. Beau Brummel, a perennial advisor on royal attire, are obviously more credible.

Disraeli put down his teacup and asked, ”So, Queen Adelaide’s stomach still hasn’t moved until now? This shouldn’t be the case, doesn’t His Majesty the King have ten illegitimate children with Mrs. Jordan? The Parliament had high hopes for him before, hoping that he and Queen Adelaide would step up their game and give Britain a legitimate male heir to the throne!”

Brummel took a sip of tea and shook his head, “No one can say what’s going on here, but everyone is speculating that it might be Queen Adelaide’s problem. But if Queen Adelaide really can’t give birth, there’s nothing that can be done, and all the council can do now is pray to God.”

When Arthur heard this, he looked like he thought of something: “But if Queen Adelaide can’t give birth to a prince, according to the current order of succession, I’m afraid that Princess Victoria, the only daughter of the Duke of Kent, who died young, will have to inherit the throne, right?”

Brummel nodded and said, “That’s right, according to Britain’s law of succession to the throne, currently Princess Victoria is the first in line. After that are her several uncles, Prince Ernst, Duke of Cumberland, second in line, and Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, third in line.”

Hearing this, Arthur frowned and asked, “What about Prince Augustus, Duke of Sussex, President of the Royal Society?”

Brummel returned, “If the Duke of Sussex had been willing to marry a princess of the royal family or even a princess of a German state in accordance with the Law of Succession to the Throne, he certainly would have been entitled to the right of succession, and the third in line would have been his. Unfortunately, Prince Augustus was not pleased. In fact, I would have preferred him to be king, but the Duke of Sussex is a debonair man who naturally does not wish to be bound by the throne, and he clearly favors the velvet chair of the President of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Society over the throne at Buckingham Palace.”

Hearing this, Disraeli could not help but exclaim, “But if Princess Victoria were to succeed to the throne, wouldn’t the confederation formed by Britain and the Kingdom of Hanover be dissolved? The Kingdom of Hanover, as a German state, is strictly enforcing the Salic Law of Succession, and it seems like they don’t support female succession to the throne there, right?”

“That’s right.” Brummel returned, “So in the order of succession to the throne of the Kingdom of Hanover, Prince Ernst, the Duke of Cumberland, is first in line. But it’s no big deal, as far as the reaction of the Parliament is concerned, they don’t care about that loose confederation we formed with Hanover. Both countries have their own elected parliaments, and their finances and taxes and all that are completely separate, so a loose confederation is a loose confederation.”

When Arthur heard this, he couldn’t help but take a sip of tea and commented, “Probably looking around the world, only Britain is so calm about losing a large piece of land for no reason, right? Whether it is Russia, Ottoman or France, this kind of inheritance crisis is expected to have already planned to move the sword.”

Brummel shrugged off: “We are not a little bit of no effort, the palace minister has been very hard to persuade his majesty to put more effort, and his majesty is also very serious about this crisis, recently he and the queen to go out for a walk time has been obviously reduced. The Duke of Wellington has fought most of his life, General Nelson died on the field of Trafalgar, and now the achievements of the two greatest generals of Britain are lying on the great bed of Buckingham Palace. We can do nothing to help in such matters, but wish His Majesty and the Queen the best of luck for the public of Britain and Hanover.”

Arthur smacked his lips twice when he heard this, he thought for half a day but still couldn’t hold back a joke: “If it’s really born, then it only means that there might really be someone to help ……”

When Disraeli heard this, he hurriedly pestled his leg with his cane and warned, “Arthur, what are you talking about? Are you not going to work at Scotland Yard again?”

Hearing this, Brummel touched out his pocket watch and looked at the time, then stood up and stretched his body, and opened his mouth to say goodbye, “Well, that’s enough of today’s gossip. Benjamin, don’t forget to come to the banquet hosted by Lord Lyndhurst this weekend, his Excellency is very fond of reading ‘The Englishman’, and he also praised your ‘The Young Duke’. I’ve given him my word that I’m sure I can get you to the banquet.”

Disraeli took off his hat and bade him farewell, “Of course, how could I forget such an important matter? Farewell, Mr. Brummel, and I wish you a happy life.”

With that, Disraeli watched Brummel walk down the stairs.

Just after Brummel disappeared from sight, Disraeli couldn’t help but proudly carry his own blouse and said to Arthur: “Arthur, we’ve really done the right thing with ‘The Englishman’! You see, I have now attracted the attention of the big shots, the special issue I wrote before, ‘England and France: or a Cure for Cabinet Francophilia’ managed to gain the favor of Mr. John Crocker, a Tory bigwig and former Secretary of State for the Navy, and now I have gained the attention of the titan of the legal profession, Lord Lyndhurst.

Just you watch, it won’t be ten years before I’m Prime Minister of Britain. If you stay at Scotland Yard and don’t make such off-key comments as you did just now, I’m sure I’ll pluck you up to be the permanent undersecretary of the Treasury as long as you can hold out until I’m prime minister. Remember what I told you before? Pride! People like us are born to excel because of pride!”

Arthur looked at Disraeli’s face that was full of excitement, he hadn’t really thought that he would actually be ordained by this reckless Jewish political rookie one day.

However, he didn’t bother to pour cold water on Disraeli, because according to his understanding, this kid could really become one in the future, and not only did he become one, but he did it in a fucking good way.

Arthur just sipped his tea calmly, “Benjamin, have you forgotten the three Charles and Alexander and Elder?”

“How could that be?” Disraeli smiled like a sunflower, “Mr. Dickens can go to be the editor-in-chief of The Times in the future, and Lionel just announced an increased investment in The Times on behalf of the Rothschilds last week. I’ve become Prime Minister, it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for them to offer my friend an editor-in-chief position, should it?” Arthur skimmed over his teacup, “It really isn’t too much. Putting him over there would still be a tall order for The Times.”

“Right, I told you.” Disraeli added with a wish, “And Mr. Darwin, he’ll go on to be President of the Linnaean Society, and by the way, a Cambridge Principal on the side.”

Arthur nodded gently, “Makes sense, but I’m afraid Elder won’t be happy about it.”

“Oh yes, Elder, I can’t forget him!” Disraeli exclaimed, “Since you’ve become the Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, why don’t Elder go to the Ministry of the Navy? After he returns from his circumnavigation of the globe, that resume should kind of hold up.”

Arthur first froze when he heard this, and then he tasted something as he muttered, “I told you, why can Britain lose to the African natives in the future? Benjamin, you are quite good at using people!”

“Lose to the African natives?” Disraeli thought Arthur was joking with him as he laughed out loud, “If Britain can lose to the African natives, wouldn’t France have to be invaded by the natives?”

Arthur couldn’t help but give him a thumbs up at his words, “Benjamin, can’t see that you kid is still a prophet!”

Disraeli stunk, “That’s for sure, great politicians have to have some foresight. By the way, there’s Alexander, if I become Prime Minister, I’ll help him build a republic in France.”

Arthur just shook his head, “All right, but the French are probably just hoping you don’t go and grab the Suez Canal from them.”

“Arthur, what are you talking about? Why am I getting confused?”

“Nothing.” Arthur spoke up and asked, “Aren’t you curious as to what I’m doing showing up at the perfume store during business hours?”

“What’s there to be curious about, don’t you usually wander the streets of London?”

Arthur shook his finger gently, “But today, is different. Benjamin, we’ve been talking about being Prime Minister for so long, isn’t it time to put our eyes back on reality?”

“Put back to reality?” Disraeli pondered for a moment, “You mean, let me join a party or something?”

“More than that.”

Arthur smiled, “I think you might be able to take it a step further and get elected as a councillor or something. I thought you mentioned Mr. Crocker and Lord Lyndhurst earlier. Both of those are big Tory figures, and if you can get on good terms with them in time, maybe you’ll be able to hit the ground running at a by-election soon.”

“A by-election.” Disraeli was shaken, and he rose violently, “Has anything happened to any of the councilors?”

Arthur crossed his fingers in his lap, “I would have thought that nothing could happen to that MP for the time being …… But if you can make a good enough impression on Mr. Crocker and the rest of the hardline Excellencies in the Tory Caucus, like getting a campaign guarantee or something, then I think that MP may be something can happen to him as well.”

Disraeli heard this and immediately responded.

He thought of that dispute between Bernie Harrison MP and Scotland Yard that had been so noisy a while back.

“So …… the results of that incident are out?”

Arthur just smiled, “It doesn’t matter if the result is out or not, what matters is that you have to remember, Benjamin, that you were born to be Prime Minister.”

After saying that, Arthur then stood up and patted him on the shoulder, “Benjamin, when ever you want to understand at any time you can come to Scotland Yard to find your loyal Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance to have a chat. As for now, I have to go find Mr. Rui Mysteries to analyze the bottle of ‘Styrian’s Secret’.”

(End of chapter)